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ECO ART: Plastic Bottle Installation in NYC

Sometimes it is hard to truly grasp how much waste we create as a society. That’s why NYC-based graphic design agency, MSLK is creating an installation that is an in-your-face visual of the amount of water bottles consumed in the United States. The installation uses 1,500 water bottles, the number of bottles consumed every 1 second — that’s 90,000 bottles per minute! Entitled “Watershed,” the piece is meant to inspire its viewers to consider the collective environmental repercussions of drinking bottled water over tap. The installation is showing at the Figment Art Festival, open from June 12-14 on Governor’s Island in New York City. Click through to see a video of the installation’s assembly!

Environmental conscious-ness has certainly strengthened in the past few years, but plastic, whether in the form of a bottle, bag or other types of packaging, are still everyday objects in most people’s lives. Furthermore, most people aren’t disposing of plastic responsibly: according to MSLK, 80% of water bottles still end up in the landfill. Not to mention the toxins that exist in plastic. Bad for the earth and bad for your body, there is no excuse! Especially in New York City, where the quality of tap water is superior, DRINK TAP!

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6 Comments

Mary Jo AagerstounFebruary 22, 2011 at 11:19 am

INhabitat…PLEASE stop calling these trash art installations EcoArt. They ARE NOT!!! EcoArt is art based in science and aimed at particular environmental problems IN the environment. Remediation and community engagement are key elements of EcoArt projects. Piling up plastic trash does nothing for the environment. Simply reusing toxic plastic does nothing to directly deal with plastic pollution everywhere. Please call these efforts what they are…TRASH ART. EcoArt should be reserved for art works that fuse art with environmental science and advocacy and result in cleaner water, reduced heat island effect, creation or conservation of energy, etc. THanks from EcoArt South Florida, Inc.

Julz9999July 27, 2009 at 12:40 pm

Bottom Line. Stop purchasing the product and it will cease to be produced. Make your stand at the check out stand. Take responsibility at home and in your personal behavior. And change will occur.

Julz9999July 27, 2009 at 12:38 pm

Bottom line. Stop buying them and production will cease because there is no money in it for the investors. Take personal responsibility for the bottom line in your household, in your behavior, and things will change. Nothin to lose, everything to gain.

kaliJune 24, 2009 at 6:19 pm

Sorry, Jane, bottled water is NOT healthful for a series of reasons. A Google search can yield various sites that explain why. How much did Nest;u they pay you for the post? They do make good chocolate, I give you that.

If Nestle felt responsible for the waste plastic bottles generate, they would demand that all their buyers recycled, by having bins all over the place. Who reads a bottled water bottle if they are “on-the-go”?

Puhleese. Stick to chocolate.

Jane LazginJune 11, 2009 at 9:33 am

I agree that too many plastic bottles end up in landfills. But to me this is more a result of inadequate recycling infrastructure than an issue with the actual plastic bottles, which are 100% recyclable and can be made into many valuable items, from carpeting, to playground equipment, and even new bottles.

I work for Nestlé Waters North America, and we take a responsibility to help make recycling easier and more prevalent in the U.S. That’s why we established an aggressive goal of recovering and recycling 60% of all PET beverage bottles by 2018, and we are lobbying for more comprehensive recycling programs with the help of state governments, recycling stakeholders and other businesses.

We are also working to reduce the amount of plastic we use. In the last 15 years, we’ve reduced the plastic content of our bottles by 48%. Our Eco-Shape bottles contain up to 30% less plastic than similar containers. And, we recently launched re-source, a premium brand of bottled water that uses 25% recycled plastic in its bottle. The bottle serves as an education vehicle to inform consumers about the importance of recycling and the personal role they can play.

Bottled water is a healthful, calorie-free beverage choice in today’s on-the-go world. As a bottled water company, we have a responsibility to manage our impact. But we can’t do it alone.

Please visit our Web site to learn more about our environmental commitments: